Jazz with Bob Perkins

Monday through Thursday, 6 to 9 pm; Sunday 9 am to 1 pm

Lovingly known as “BP with the GM” (Bob Perkins with the Good Music), BP brings you that good music just in time for dinner during your work week, and keeps your Sunday brunch swinging. His selections are like a familiar hug from Jazz Land featuring your favorite standards and vocalists such as Sarah, Ella, and Nat, some Big Band legends including the Duke and the Count, and the giants of the instrumentals like Lee Morgan, Hank Crawford, Miles, and Coltrane. Take a listen to "Ol' BP" as he calls himself...you'll be back again and again.

David Newman is a fairly average name. But insert the nickname “Fathead,” and there you have a memorable handle—especially when the person is an entertainer. An odd name is one way to get attention. Musician David Newman must have caught on to this early in his career as a professional musician, and advanced by keeping the derogatory but attention-catching name of David “Fathead” Newman.

Don't be mistaken: Philadelphia is complimented far and wide. The City of Brotherly Love is our well-known handle, and our fine-eating places are the talk of other towns. Also peculiar to the area are those gastronomic delights known as hoagies, soft pretzels, and cheese steaks. We've got Billy Penn; we've got the Liberty Bell.

A sweet weekend of romantic music is planned for all of our listeners...so get ready! We're warming up for Valentine's Day on Friday, just after 12 noon. Jack Moore will bring you Romance for Cello, Harp and Strings by Hungarian composer Leo Weiner, Rachmaninoff's ultra-romantic Piano Concerto No. 3, and Pablo de Sarasate's virtuoso Fantasy on Gounod's Romeo and Juliet for violin and orchestra.

Art Blakey was to the small band what Duke Ellington was to the big band, meaning that over the years Blakey’s small groups—like Ellington’s big bands—produced a great number of jazz artists, many of whom became jazz legends.

In the early 1980s, when a young sixth-grader in Colorado first heard Charlie Parker, his life was transformed. Now a world-class saxophonist, Rudresh Mahanthappa is paying homage to Parker with his new album, Bird Calls. Mahanthappa says it's a tribute to Charlie Parker — but there are no Charlie Parker songs here.

WRTI has entered a new frontier in fund drives. Our mission: to eliminate the traditional Winter Drive as you know it, to boldly go where we’ve never gone before. Enter the WRTI Warp Drive.

What’s a Warp Drive? With your help, it’s faster than the speed of light! We quickly raise $325,000 — with your help now — to avoid the traditional-sounding Winter Drive, which is slated to begin on February 9th.

What do you get when you put together a hard-driving percussive Bebop saxophonist with a lyrical, warm Cool Jazz saxophonist? Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz, of course! February 2nd marks the birth of both of these giants of jazz, and Bob Perkins is getting set to celebrate.

Stitt and Getz both arrived on the jazz scene in the mid 1940s. And both went through numerous assignments in big bands and combos as they continued developing their unique jazz voices.

Ring in 2015 with a celebration of the wonderful jazz that 2014 brought to you throughout the year. The Top 100 Jazz Songs of 2014 will kick off at 9 pm on Sunday, December 28th, and we'll reach No. 1 right as the ball drops. Last year, Cecile McLorin Salvant took first place in this listener-generated list. Who will it be this year? Make sure you tune in on New Year's Eve to find out. End the year on a high note by taking a jazz journey through 2014.

On Monday, December 15th, WRTI will begin to drizzle a bit of the holidays into our regular smorgasbord of jazz delights. There are exciting, new festive winter releases from the likes of Irvin Mayfield and the Jazz Playhouse Review, David Ian, and the top-notch performers from Mack Avenue Records.

You'll also hear the Yuletide classics you expect from WRTI - selections from Stan Kenton, Jimmy Smith and Ella Fitzgerald - all mixed in with regular jazz programming. Join as us we set the mood for holiday tables and fireplace gatherings.